Arnie Kohn (56)
The best bialys I ever had were from a shop on Grand Street, near Chinatown
in New York City. They also made Pletzle bread, which we generally had as a treat,
coming home from the city. Pletzle bread was actually a large Bialy. Arnie
Judy Sarnow Gluck (60)
Kossar’s bialys are the best I’ve ever eaten! Also, their bagels and flagels. If you go, please bring some back for me!
In NJ, bagels from Bagels 4U are the best! Watson Bagels makes the bagels and delivers them to the stores to be baked there. Judy
W-reflections:
Mady Bauman Barna (56)
To Marty Friedman (1/47), I was wondering if you remember my sister Zelma Bauman, she graduated in 46. Bless your heart at 92. I graduated WHS in 1956 and your memories bring back wonderful nostalgia about sleigh riding down Keer Avenue, where I lived, and the Park Movie and the usher (ha ha). You didn't mention the Weequahic Diner which was part of the wonderful years, Watson Bagels or Mings Chinese Restaurant. I could go on and on. We will never recapture the warmth of those years, so thanks for your wonderful memories! Mady
Marty Friedman (1/47)
Mady, yes. I certainly remember your sister, Zelma Bauman, and your famous father Leo Bauman, who owned the most famous and best restaurant in the area, the Weequahic Diner. Zelma was a year ahead of me and a friend of Elaine Blitzman; she lived across the street from me. We both attended Farleigh Dickinson in Teaneck after high school.
Leo Bauman was GREAT. The Weequahic Diner opened, I think, in 1943 on Frelinghuysen Avenue about two blocks south of Hawthorne Avenue. He ran that restaurant every night perfectly. And every Saturday night it was packed with people waiting in line. Sunday mornings the same.
The Weequahic Diner was just as much an icon as Watson Bagel. After the late snack or dinner with the long wait for a table on Saturday nights, then it was time (11 or 12 or 1 PM) to drive up Hawthorne and over to Watson Avenue to get the bag of bagels and the Sunday newspapers already for sale in front of Watson Bagel.
In the 1940s and 50s, it was the place to bring your date and Sunday morning for the best lox, eggs, onions and great pancakes and wonderful desserts. I still remember Leo running around, yelling at the help and the customers to “move faster, people are waiting.” And he always had beautiful young waitresses.
Then years later Leo opened the brand new luxurious Clairmont Diner on Bloomfield Avenue and Rt 23 near the Claridge House apartments. Marty
Harold Edwards (66)
I worked at Silver's Bakery and Seymour's Deli on Hawthorne Avenue in Newark in the early 1960s. I must have been 14 or 15 years old and I was only allowed to work at a few hours, 6 to 12 hours per week because of my age. To answer Ann Kosser Branfman's (Chancellor/Battin 71) question with regard to the deli next to silver's bakery, I'm almost sure it was Seymour's because that was the owner's first name. He and Mr. Silver were so kind to a young fella like me to provide me the part time jobs. I would clean the deli until we closed every night and sometimes deliver the groceries in a basket in front of the bicycle which they provided for me.
I developed a keen taste for the best lox, gefilte fish and all of the delicacies they sold. In addition to the delicious rolls (better than Keil's down the street) Mr. Silver would let me take home, I would walk from there to my home on 121 Hansbury Avenue by Parkview Terrace (1962-1986), pass Watson Bagels on Clinton Place and pick up some hot fresh bagels for my mother. I can remember riding that bike from the deli all the way to the apartment buildings on the corner of North Broad Street and North Avenue in Elizabeth, N.J. for special customers!
My girlfriend lived on the corner of Demarest and Nye where I would regularly drop off some of the rolls to her family before I took my trek on home. Great memories of those days, especially Mr. Silver and Mr. Seymour giving me some of my first opportunities to work.
I also worked at Norman Bros. Drug Store on Watson Avenue back in the day. Does anyone remember that pharmacy? Harold
Sondra Kurtz Newell (6/63)
My dad and I lived in a one family house on a street called Schleifer Road. I wonder if the street was named after the man Nathan Himelstein (South Side 1/55) discussed in the weekly “WHS Note.” I lived there for a short period of time prior to getting married. I think the street that had all new homes at the time my father bought ours and the street was named after the famous man Schleifer. I believe it was a new street located in Hillside, NJ. Sondra
